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Apo-Nid110646.Pdf Libraries and Learning Services University of Auckland Research Repository, ResearchSpace Copyright Statement The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. • Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognize the author's right to be identified as the author of this thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. • You will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from their thesis. General copyright and disclaimer In addition to the above conditions, authors give their consent for the digital copy of their work to be used subject to the conditions specified on the Library Thesis Consent Form and Deposit Licence. Hawai‘i: GMO Ground Zero Seeds of Occupation, Seeds of Possibility Andrea Brower A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University of Auckland, 2016. Abstract As the primary site for development of all herbicide-tolerant corn seed and with more experimental field trials of genetically engineered crops than anywhere else in the world, Hawai‘i is placed at the epicenter of the agrochemical-seed-biotechnology industry’s global chains of production. It is also a node of powerful resistance along that chain. This thesis contributes a previously absent critical analysis of Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and BASF’s occupation of Hawai’i. It details the political, social, historical, and geographical arrangements that give rise to the situation, with focus especially on matters of capital, expropriation of the commons, imperialism, and capitalist state functioning. It reveals what is presented as natural and inevitable to be merely contingent and explores the battle over the logic of the possible. While this thesis focuses on the specific case of the agrochemical-seed-biotechnology industry’s occupation of Hawai‘i and its resistance, it holds more general lessons for critical scholarship and activism. In the broadest sense, it shows in the empirical case study of Hawai‘i how capital operates over land and people, simultaneously dismantling neoliberal common sense that this is all that is possible. In its investigation of how the existing order is reproduced and challenged, it provides a detailed account of ideological and material forces that serve to depoliticize and foreclose alternative arrangements. Finally, it shows how resistance to injustice is itself limited by collective imagination of the possible and why recoding the possible is a most critical terrain of struggle today. This project is informed primarily by participation in activist mobilization on the island of Kaua‘i in 2013 for Bill 2491, local regulation of the agrochemical industry’s pesticide use. It is a project of activist scholarship, with its primary methodology being ethnographic immersion in the struggle from which I write. Two tenets of this research orientation are of special significance. First, the research I offer is a part of, and inseparable from, political and ethical commitments to democracy, egalitarianism, ecological regeneration, and justice. Second, it is from within rather than outside the situation in Hawai‘i that I develop insights into its complexities and contradictions and contribute uniquely to both knowledge production and social change. !2 This thesis is dedicated to West Kaua‘i Pioneer DuPont fields upwind from Waimea town and river, West Kaua‘i. Photo credit: Sol Kahn. !3 Acknowledgments This thesis is rooted in political movements and my greatest debt is to my comrades. The wisdom, friendship, and fortitude of co-activists, too many to name, motivates and informs these pages. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Campbell Jones, who first encouraged me to embark on a PhD. Campbell has been an extraordinary mentor in having an uncompromising commitment to intellectual and political work, and refusing to separate the two. Uniquely, he fully supported my creativity and decisions that often went against the grain. His confidence in me, especially when it felt undeserved, helped to pull me through some challenging moments. Manuel Vallée gave far beyond the duties of a “secondary” supervisor. His thorough but empathetic supervision significantly assisted me in completing the journey without sacrificing my wellbeing. He and his family, Alise and Julien, opened their home to me, sustaining me in the last months with shelter, meals, laughter, and kindness. The University of Auckland has provided a rich intellectual community. I am especially grateful to the circle of rebellious graduate students that has convened and conspired over the past years, and for everything each of you does to make the university a space of learning, dissent, and new possibilities. Tremendous thanks to Nathalie Jaques for her meticulous reading of this entire thesis and for acting like it was fun. I could not have made it to Aotearoa without the generous support of Rotary International, which funded my first year of study. The University of Auckland Scholarship carried me through. For funding in a time of cuts to education, I am deeply privileged and appreciative. Thank you to the Marrows and Drummonds for understanding how important it was for me to have ‘ohana nearby and for stepping into that role. My life in Aotearoa has been much enhanced by everything my te reo wh"nau has taught me about this place. My family — Rob, Laurel, Luc, Mallory, and Mong — is my anchor and joy. My parents are an inexhaustible reservoir of love, and responsible for everything I do right. My brother is my constant reminder of the boundless generosity and goodness of the human spirit. !4 Parts of this PhD thesis have been published in: Brower, A. 2016. From the Sugar Oligarchy to the Agrochemical Oligopoly: Situating Monsanto and Gang’s Occupation of Hawai‘i. Food, Culture & Society, 19(3): 587-614. Brower, A. 2016. Hawai‘i: “GMO Ground Zero.” Capitalism Nature Socialism, 27(1): 68-86. Brower, A. 2013. Agri-food Activism and Imagination of the Possible. New Zealand Sociology, 28(4): 80-100. Brower, A. 2013. Commons Possibilities and Popular Food Activism. FreeRange, 7: 40-46. Brower, A. 2015. “From Sugar to Monsanto.” Hawai‘i Independent. 18 May. Available at: http:// hawaiiindependent.net/story/from-sugar-to-monsanto. Brower, A. 2014. “Horror and Hope.” Commons Dreams. 28 June. Available at: http:// www.commondreams.org/views/2014/06/28/horror-and-hope. Brower, A. 2014. “The Difference Between a Farmer and a Global Chemical Corporation.” Huffington Post. 11 February. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-brower/ the-difference-between-a-_3_b_4764902.html. Brower, A. 2013. “To Feed and Protect the World, Rein In Corporate Ag.” Huffington Post. 2 December. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-brower/in-celebration-of- world-f_b_4347635.html. Brower, A. 2013. “Chemical Corporations Tremble at Kaua‘i's Unwavering Determination.” Huffington Post. 11 October. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-brower/ chemical-corporations-tre_b_4061582.html. Brower, A. 2013. “From the Experimental GMO Fields of Kaua‘i to the TPP: Connecting the Dots.” Huffington Post. 6 September. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea- brower/gmos-kauai-tpp_b_3883371.html. Brower, A. 2013. “Hawai‘i's Local Struggle in the Global Movement for Food Justice.” Common Dreams. 23 July. Available at: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2013/07/23/hawaiis- local-struggle-global-movement-food-justice. Brower, A. 2013. “What to Say When They Say It’s Impossible.” Yes! 13 June. Available at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/love-and-the-apocalypse/what-to-say-when-they-say-it- s-impossible. Brower, A. 2012. “Eating Our Way to a Better World? A Plea to Local, Fair-Trade, and Organic Food Enthusiasts.” Common Dreams. 12 June. Available at: http://www.commondreams.org/ views/2012/06/12/eating-our-way-better-world-plea-local-fair-trade-and-organic-food- enthusiasts. !5 Contents Abbreviations 8 List of Images 9 Glossary of Hawaiian Words 10 PART I — LAYING THE SOIL 11 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION — A DETERMINING MOMENT 12 Research Significance 15 A Project of Activism and Scholarship 17 Methods 23 Thesis Overview 29 Final Notes 32 CHAPTER TWO: THE COMMONS AND CAPITAL 34 The Commons 34 Enclosures 38 The State and Imperial Capital 43 PART II — MORE THAN SUNSHINE: HAWAI‘I FROM SUGAR TO MONSANTO 50 CHAPTER THREE: COLONIAL PLANTATIONS 51 Contact 52 Enclosure of the Commons 54 Rise of the Plantation, Loss of the Nation 60 The Capitalist State 65 Consolidation of Capital: The Big Five 71 MonoEconomy Dependence and No Alternative 74 The New MonoEconomy 79 CHAPTER FOUR: THE AGROCHEMICAL-SEED-BIOTECHNOLOGY OLIGOPOLY 85 Gene-Plant Enclosures 85 Liberating Capital in the Agrifood System 94 Consolidation of the Agrochemical, Seed, and Biotech Industries 99 Privatized Science and Capital’s Technology Pursuits 107 Regulatory Regimes and Industry Influence 120 CHAPTER FIVE: GMO GROUND ZERO 128 Agrochemical Plantations 129 Health and Environmental Impacts 131 United States Regulatory Regimes 143 !6 The Search for the Next Plantation 146 Public Support 152 Land 153 Water 154 Tax and Other Direct Subsidy 156 Research Institutions 157 Unaccounted
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